Nintendo has scheduled Big Brain Academy for Wii this summer luring anyone hooked on the original DS version to Nintendo’s in-demand console.

Yes, gesture based mini-games to work the old grey matter are coming to Nintendo Wii via ‘Big Brain Academy’. This follow-up to one of the most popular titles on Nintendo DS should be ideally suited to Wii, taking full advantage of the Wii remote as a simple interface to tackle all the challenges.

Big Brain Academy’s mini-games are laid out as a fun way to improve the average Joe’s skills, very different to Dr Kawashima's no-laughing Brain Training regime. The Wii Academy's five different categories – analyse, visualise, compute and identify and memorise – are yours to perfect as you wish, all efforts guided by the very bizarre Dr Lobe (a talking brain, eugh). While the single-player Test mode can be used as a mental coach there are also three multiplayer modes for up to eight people to compete for intellectual bragging rights.

The multiplayer modes comprise Mind Sprint – a series of up to 24 head-to-head challenges playable as teams of up to four; Mental Marathon – pushing you to maintain perfect scores across all the mini-games, and finally Brain Quiz – 12 random mini-games, again with the objective of keeping that perfect score.

All the mini-games in Big Brain Academy for Wii are colourful and inventive, based on simple real-world conundrums usually with a mathematical slant. Among other things you'll be asked to arrange sections of a train track by bursting corresponding balloons to help locomotives reach their destination, memorise food items dictated via the Wii remote speaker and fit the correct piece to complete an animated jigsaw. Bear in mind these challenges are action-oriented so require speedy reflexes in addition to fast thinking. Three difficulty settings ensure that everyone in the household can enjoy the proceedings.

To ‘enrol’ in the academy you must first create a profile. This tracks your progress through all the mini-games, adding to your Student Record that can be shared with friends online via Nintendo’s WiiConnect24 service. Details from other people’s Student Record can be added to Mind Sprint mode so you can see how your performance compares. Although the aim is to develop a balanced brain it should also be interesting to know strengths and weaknesses in the five key areas illustrated by your Student Record’s spider graph.

Well it’s not as if we have the excuse of Not Enough Hours in the Day, this being British summertime and all that. Big Brain Academy for Wii is released 20 July for £35 ERP